Reborn! fic - Laughter Penetrates
Wrote this for this week's khr_drabble challenge. Not too sure about this because I think my drabbles are all starting to sound the same, BUT WHATEVER.
Sorry if the cross-posting crowded up anyone's f-list, btw. XD
Title: Laughter Penetrates
Challenge: 005: Silence
Rating: G
Word Count: 462
Characters: Tsuna
Warnings: Spoilers for the Future Arc.
Summary: A space that's too big for the people living in it.
---
His first thought when he sees their underground base in the future is, ‘It’s huge.’
His second thought is, ‘It’s empty.’
And it is. Empty; huge; in some places, almost cavernous. This is a base that was built to house an active and prosperous famiglia, a busy new generation of mafioso, budding and growing. It should be filled with dozens of people.
But it isn’t. There’s Reborn, there’s Giannini, and there’s Tsuna and the group that accompanied him: Gokudera-kun, the older Yamamoto, and Lal Mirch. Six people.
That’s it.
The result is a space that’s too big for the people living in it. Entire levels that echo with stillness, filled with ghosts and nothing else. There is silence in places that shouldn’t be silent. Everywhere he turns, he’s reminded of where he is and exactly what kind of future he is in.
His future self would have built this base intending for it to be full of life, inhabited by friendly faces, members of his family. Laughing, talking, bickering and working, all of them together. Just like home. In fact, before he came to this place, that was the future he was starting to imagine for himself.
Now he pictures the inside of a coffin. An image he can’t manage to get out of his head, no matter how hard he tries.
It gets a little better when Yamamoto and the others from his time arrive. Lambo and I-Pin, too young to understand what’s going on, who run around like nothing has changed. Kyoko-chan and Haru, who do understand but put on brave faces regardless, whose hopeful smiles brighten the room. And Yamamoto and Gokudera-kun, who understand all too well, and encourage him like nothing’s wrong, working just like him to get stronger.
They help. It’s still hard sometimes, when he steps out into a hallway to be greeted by the quiet, but their energy helps to fill that void. They make it bearable.
So he tries his best to focus on that, on the light and laughter that they bring, and to not think about what these halls might be like in a week or two, when that inevitable battle comes. When for better or worse, it’s time to leave this place for good; a lifeless, hollow shell of a place that once sheltered the people he loves.
He reminds himself that it’s only a home as long as those people are there to make it one. That they’re going to change this world gone wrong. That there’s nothing stopping that happy future from coming to pass as long as he has them, and they never give up.
But the uncertainties still creep into his mind, stark and profound, despite his best efforts. No matter how he tries, he can never quite shake them when he’s alone.
Every day, he’s thankful that he isn’t.
Sorry if the cross-posting crowded up anyone's f-list, btw. XD
Title: Laughter Penetrates
Challenge: 005: Silence
Rating: G
Word Count: 462
Characters: Tsuna
Warnings: Spoilers for the Future Arc.
Summary: A space that's too big for the people living in it.
---
His first thought when he sees their underground base in the future is, ‘It’s huge.’
His second thought is, ‘It’s empty.’
And it is. Empty; huge; in some places, almost cavernous. This is a base that was built to house an active and prosperous famiglia, a busy new generation of mafioso, budding and growing. It should be filled with dozens of people.
But it isn’t. There’s Reborn, there’s Giannini, and there’s Tsuna and the group that accompanied him: Gokudera-kun, the older Yamamoto, and Lal Mirch. Six people.
That’s it.
The result is a space that’s too big for the people living in it. Entire levels that echo with stillness, filled with ghosts and nothing else. There is silence in places that shouldn’t be silent. Everywhere he turns, he’s reminded of where he is and exactly what kind of future he is in.
His future self would have built this base intending for it to be full of life, inhabited by friendly faces, members of his family. Laughing, talking, bickering and working, all of them together. Just like home. In fact, before he came to this place, that was the future he was starting to imagine for himself.
Now he pictures the inside of a coffin. An image he can’t manage to get out of his head, no matter how hard he tries.
It gets a little better when Yamamoto and the others from his time arrive. Lambo and I-Pin, too young to understand what’s going on, who run around like nothing has changed. Kyoko-chan and Haru, who do understand but put on brave faces regardless, whose hopeful smiles brighten the room. And Yamamoto and Gokudera-kun, who understand all too well, and encourage him like nothing’s wrong, working just like him to get stronger.
They help. It’s still hard sometimes, when he steps out into a hallway to be greeted by the quiet, but their energy helps to fill that void. They make it bearable.
So he tries his best to focus on that, on the light and laughter that they bring, and to not think about what these halls might be like in a week or two, when that inevitable battle comes. When for better or worse, it’s time to leave this place for good; a lifeless, hollow shell of a place that once sheltered the people he loves.
He reminds himself that it’s only a home as long as those people are there to make it one. That they’re going to change this world gone wrong. That there’s nothing stopping that happy future from coming to pass as long as he has them, and they never give up.
But the uncertainties still creep into his mind, stark and profound, despite his best efforts. No matter how he tries, he can never quite shake them when he’s alone.
Every day, he’s thankful that he isn’t.